off to the jungle - elephants and tigers and mosquitos, oh my

so this will likely be the last post for a couple of days, as we are headed off on our jungle expedition this morning, after a hearty set breakfast of tepid hot dog, fried egg, and toasted wonder bread (it is a mystery to me why the 'western style' food is so consistently disgusting here when the thai food is so consistently delicious - clearly they understand the concept of fresh ingredients, spices, etc. so ??? hm. anyway).
the plan is to drive out into the jungle, hike to a waterfall, try not to drown, hike out to a traditional karen village where the hmong hill tribes come from, spend the night in a hmong house, continue trekking the next day (including a portion with ELEPHANTS!), spend the night in a traditional lahu house, and then bamboo river-raft back to chiang mai. should be a good time. i am less pleased that i will be doing all this while on my period, but i'm sure it will just add to the adventure.
yesterday after getting ourselves off the train (in the process of which i seem to have mislaid an empty duffel bag, which is sort of annoying) we got ourselves to the suan doi guesthouse on the outskirts of chiang mai; the rooms are quite plain, but i like it SO much more than the posh hotels we were in before, as it feels much more like the real thing. there is a labyrinthine garden with full of orchids and little hidden tables and birds of paradise and litte fountains and arbours froggies making little froggy noises and birds making birdy noises (including one bird sitting quite near me that sounds unsettlingly like a wolf-whistle. i know i look sexy when i type, but still). you can tell it's the real thing b/c the people at the front desk are wearing polyester pants instead of immaculate brushed silk uniform jacketes, and the little cafe tables in the garden have plaid plastic tablecloths, and there are mildewed pictures of the king hanging on all the walls.
yesterday afternoon we went to a temple on a hilltop, which was lovely - the colours here are just stunning, bright gold temple rooftops against a deep blue sky, dark red ceilings, all the coloured glass. love it. totally want to remodel my house like that (don't worry, i won't actually; i had the same urge after i came back from india and was too lazy to actually do it. but i want to). after that we went to a dinner thing with traditional thai dancing, which was pretty in a boring sort of a way except for a guy who did wicked cool things with swords, balancing six of them on his face while slotting more between his toes, etc. etc (i'm exaggerating, but only slightly). and then after THAT we went to the night market, which was craft fair extravaganza oh my goodness. you have never seen so many white people trying to buy so many sequinned elephant tapestries in one place. it actually had a really nice feel to it, as the people selling did not appear to be desperate or aggressive at all, and most were working on making something of whatever they sold, and some of the things were admittedly totally beautiful. and there are actually quite a lot of thai people buying louis vuitton knockoffs etc, which (while i myself do not need louis vuitton knockoffs) adds to the diversity of the whole business. anyway.
apropos of nothing i am FINALLY reading the inheritance of loss, by kiran desai, and it is proving to be really good, although any time i travel in a poor-ish country of brown people, i get painfully uncomfortably aware of the evils of colonialism and bad behavior of white people in general and this book is not helping that feeling at all at all.
wish me luck with the mosquitos and the heffalumps and i will hopefully be back on line in a few days...